


Dwell in Possibility

by CuteAsANewt



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Broken Bones, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 02:42:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16884126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuteAsANewt/pseuds/CuteAsANewt
Summary: TJ's eighth grade year is completely turned on it's head after he breaks his leg and is no longer able to play basketball. Luckily Cyrus is willing to keep him company.Canon compliant up until season 2 finale.





	Dwell in Possibility

It was Tuesday, which meant Cyrus was sitting on a bench in the park as he watched TJ and Buffy’s weekly one on one game. What had started as a scheme to get TJ and Buffy on good terms ended up becoming a weekly tradition for the trio. This was mostly due to the fact that TJ and Buffy were both equally competitive and equally matched. Their win rate was nearly 50/50.

Today TJ was in the lead. At least, as far as Cyrus could tell. He was there to keep score but honestly he had no clue what was going on half the time. He just loved cheering on two of his best friends.

“Bam!” Cyrus heard Buffy exclaim as the ball swished through the net. “That’s another point for me, Cyrus!” She gave TJ a gloating smile as she jogged past him to get the ball.

“Oh, so I guess that only makes you 4 points behind me now.” TJ swiped the ball from Buffy’s hands and made another shot. “Actually, looks like you’re back up to 5. You got that Underdog?” He nodded over to Cyrus.

Cyrus smiled and gave TJ a thumbs up. He knew they knew he wasn’t actually keeping score but he appreciated that they included him in the banter. He sighed contentedly as he watched them play, thinking about how nice it is to have two people he cared so much about get along. It was so important to him that Buffy liked TJ.

“Hey! Cy-guy!” The familiar voice broke Cyrus out of his thoughts and he looked up to see Jonah, accompanied by a large golden retriever on a leash, jogging towards him.

“Jonah! Hi!” Cyrus’s grin practically took up his entire face as he beamed at the dog. “I didn’t know you had a dog! What’s his name?”

Cyrus got off the bench and crouched down on the ground to get eye level with the dog, letting it lick his face as he stroked it’s head and scratched it’s ears.

“Yeah, her name’s Stormy. We’ve had her forever.”

“I guess you’ve just never mentioned her.” At that moment Stormy jumped on Cyrus, knocking him down. He yelped as he fell but then laughed when Stormy stretched out across his lap.

“Stormy, no! Get off” Jonah tugged the leash slightly but Stormy didn’t budge.

“No, it’s fine Jonah, I don’t mind! I actually like it.” he chuckled slightly while rubbing his face in Stormy's soft fur, “I wish I had a dog. Three of my four parents are allergic though.” He scratched Stormy under her collar. “And she’s just so beautiful! Yes you are! You are such a pretty puppy! Oh who’s a good girl?”

TJ and Buffy were so into their game they hadn’t noticed Jonah or the dog. But Cyrus’s baby voice caught TJ’s attention. As he was dribbling the ball away from Buffy, he looked over to Cyrus to see what caused him to talk like that and the sight was almost too much. Cyrus’s face radiated pure joy as Jonah’s dog wagged her tail in response to Cyrus’s pets. TJ had never seen a more adorable sight in his life.

He was so distracted by Cyrus that he didn’t notice the large crack in the asphalt he was headed towards. As he melted over the sight of Cyrus, his foot got caught in the crack, lurching his body forward. He hit the ground hard. He fell at a weird angle and all his weight landed on his right leg. His stomach dropped and panic coursed through his veins as he heard the unmistakable snap of a bone breaking. He had never broken a bone before but there was nothing else that sound could have been. It made his skin crawl. Immediately he was hit with a wave of the most excruciating pain he had ever felt in his life.

“Aaarrrrrggaggagghhhhh” he gritted his teeth trying in vain not to scream. His hands clenched around his thigh, trying desperately to will the pain to stop but there was no letting up. “ _Aaarrgghh FUCK! Shit_.” he hissed through his teeth.

Stormy whined as Cyrus threw her off his lap and ran onto the court.

“TJ! Oh my god. What happened? Are you okay?” Cyrus bent down next to TJ, frantically waving his hands around, trying to figure out how he could help.

“He doesn’t look okay.” Cyrus looked up to see Buffy and Jonah also hovering around TJ, their faces looking almost as panicked as Cyrus felt. “TJ you’re sweating. You look like you’re going to be sick.” Buffy continued.

TJ did feel nauseated from the pain. _God please no_ , he thought, _if I barf it’s going to land on Cyrus._ He swallowed hard, trying to maintain as much dignity as he could in his current position.

TJ inhaled sharply. “I think my leg’s broken.” he said through gritted teeth.

“Can you move it at all?” Cyrus asked

“ _No._ ” Even just the thought of moving it filled TJ with dread.

“Okay that’s it, I’m calling 911.”

Cyrus ran back to his backpack at the bench to grab his phone. TJ considered for a second protesting, but he knew that he probably needed an ambulance. He was not about to move from where he sat on his own, and although he trusted his friends he definitely didn’t want them to try to move him either.

Cyrus ran back a minute later, still clutching his phone and typing something. “Okay TJ, an ambulance is on it’s way. And I’m texting your mom to let her know what’s happening so she can meet us at the hospital.”

“No, Cy- sh-she’s at work. She can’t miss a- a shift.” He said, panting through the pain. He felt tears leak from the corner of his eyes as he groaned in pain again.

“TJ! Look at you! Work can wait! Your mom would kill me if some EMT called her after the fact instead of me right now.”

TJ didn’t try to argue again. He knew Cyrus was mostly right anyway. His mom would want to know immediately. And she would drop anything for TJ. But work couldn’t wait. He knew his mom was on thin ice at work and missing a shift could be detrimental to their family.  

He couldn’t think about that right now though. He just kept trying to reign in his pain and keep his groaning and whimpering to a minimum. Embarrassment washed over him as he sat on the asphalt with his three friends all staring at him, concern and pity lacing their faces, while they waited for an ambulance.

* * *

 

Buffy leaned against the wall in the hospital waiting room, talking on the phone with Jonah. She promised to call him with updates since he had to take his dog home and wasn’t able to accompany them to the hospital.

“Yeah, he’s in surgery now. … Well, because they needed to screw the bone back together so it heals properly.” She paused a minute more as Jonah spoke on the other end and as she did she looked across the room at Cyrus.

Cyrus sat anxiously in one of the waiting room chairs, staring absentmindedly at the wall across from him and chewing on his thumbnail.

“He hasn’t said much since we got here. He’s just spacing out. I’ve never seen him this anxious and we’re talking about Cyrus, here. So that’s saying a LOT.”

Buffy nodded into the phone at Jonah’s response. “Yeah they are close, but this is taking it to a whole other level. Cyrus is acting like TJ could die or something, like reckless teenage boys don’t break bones all the time.” She looked back over at Cyrus, his eyes still trained on the same spot on the wall. She sighed. “Honestly I’m more worried about him than I am about TJ… Okay, well, I’ll text you when he’s out of surgery… Okay… yeah, bye.”

Buffy plopped down next to Cyrus after hanging up.

“Hey, you okay?” She bumped his shoulder with her own.

“Hm?” he glanced over at Buffy for a second before turning back to face the wall, still chewing on his thumb nail. “uh, i dunno.”

Buffy grimaced. “You really shouldn’t do that.” She reached up and grabbed his hand, gently yanking the nail out of his mouth and then squeezing his hand lightly between her own. “He’s okay, you know. It’s just a broken bone. People break bones all the time.”

“It’s surgery, Buffy!” his head snapped back up towards hers, eyes wide and brows furrowed. “He’s back there somewhere being cut open and prodded and they’re putting screws in his body and what if it was worse? What if he landed on his head instead of his leg? What if-”

He was cut off by the sound of shoes clicking down the hallway towards them. They both stood up as TJ’s mom approached them.

“Well kids, he’s out of surgery now and resting. The good news is the surgery went well. It was a clean break and they were able to reset it nicely. They’re hopeful it won’t cause any long term problems.”

Cyrus let out the breath he was holding. “Thank god.”

Buffy squeezed his hand she was still holding. “That’s great news, Mrs. Kippen! See Cyrus, I told you a broken bone is not big deal.”

The soft smile Mrs. Kippen gave them fell slightly. “And… the bad news is that this is one of the worst bones TJ could have broken. Femurs take a long time to heal. The average recovery time is six months.”

Cyrus’s mouth hung open. “He won’t be able to walk for six months?”

“What about basketball?” Buffy interjected.

“Unfortunately, there’s no way he’ll be able to play this season. Maybe not next season either. He’s going to need a lot of physical therapy to regain use of his leg. And he’s definitely going to need his friends by his side. I know TJ likes to act tough but this is going to be a really hard time for him.”

Cyrus nodded emphatically. “Of course. We’re going to be there for him.”

Mrs Kippen smiled. “Thank you. But for now, he just needs to rest. No use in you kids staying here any later than you need to on a school night.”

Buffy nodded and turned to Cyrus. “Ready to go?”

Cyrus seemed to hesitate for a minute. He really did not want to leave even if he couldn’t see TJ yet. “Er… yeah, I guess. I’ll be back tomorrow. Can you text me his room number?”

Mrs Kippen nodded. “Of course. Now, let me drive you home.”

* * *

 

It was a little after 11pm when Cyrus got home. He let his parents know that TJ was okay but dodged all their other questions, telling them he was really tired and they would talk tomorrow. In actuality, he just didn't know how to answer their other questions. His head was swimming and he couldn’t seem to parse together a clear thought.

He got in bed and stared up at the ceiling, trying to will his body to relax, to go to sleep. He looked over at the alarm clock on his bedside table. 12:36am. Five and a half hours before he had to get up tomorrow. He sighed, knowing that he was never going to fall asleep at this rate.

He got out of bed and sat down at his desk, turning on his laptop. Working on the book report he had due next week always seemed to make him want to go to sleep so he figured he’d try that for a while. Instead he just found himself staring blankly at his computer screen as opposed to the ceiling.

He shut his laptop in frustration, rubbing his hands over his face and groaning. _This is hopeless_ , he thought, _I’m just not going to sleep tonight and that’s that_.

When he looked up from his hands, he noticed a black notebook laying on the corner of his desk. His stepdad had given it to Cyrus when he started sixth grade. The transition from grade school to middle school was particularly challenging for Cyrus. He got bullied pretty frequently that year. He never told his parents about it but they noticed a spike in his anxiety nonetheless.

Cyrus’s stepdad pulled him aside one day and handed him that notebook. “Look, son. I know something is going on. I understand if you’re uncomfortable talking to me about it, but I want to make sure you’re processing your feelings somehow.” he said to him. “I’m not going to force you to talk to me or one of your other parents when you’re upset, but if you don’t want to talk about it, I want you to write about it. Just whatever is in your head. Stream of consciousness. It will help, I promise. Can you do that for me?”

Cyrus flipped through the blank pages of the journal and nodded at his stepdad. “Yeah, I’ll try.”

His stepdad ruffled Cyrus’s hair. “Good, kid.”

Now, two years later at 1am in his bedroom, Cyrus flipped through that journal. He did use it when he was upset that year and it helped him a lot. It made him feel less alone and more in control of his thoughts.

It had been about a year since he’d written though. He stopped using the journal when the bullying eventually died down. But now he felt the urge to use it again. He flipped to the first blank page and rested the tip of the pen on the top left corner. He didn’t know where to start or what he even wanted to say.

_Just whatever’s in your head. Stream of consciousness_. He heard his step dad's voice play in his head.

Cyrus took a deep breath and began to write.

_He’s hurting. He’s somewhere in that huge hospital alone in a strange bed with his leg cut open and stitched back together. there’s screws in his bone and i didn’t even get to see him after he got out of surgery. I wish i could have seen him. I’m trying to imagine if he would smile at seeing me there or grimace in pain or maybe embarrassment because i’m too concerned and i think it’s hard for him to accept that people care about him. But i do care about him. so much._ _Too much._ _I just need to know that he’s okay. I mean. I know he’s okay as in he’s going to live and be fine but how is he feeling? Like emotionally? Does he even know how he feels emotionally? What if he needs to talk to me to figure out what he’s feeling, to work through what’s going on in his head? No. stop it Cyrus. Stop trying to fix everyone’s problems and make everything about you. It’s not like TJ needs me or anything. He’s smart and independent and confident. He can handle anything. But. I want him to need me. Is that bad? I think I need him too, though. Is that bad too? Does that make me codependent? No, it’s not codependent if it’s one sided. Then it’s just dependent. Just pathetic. I’m pathetic. God. I act like i have some silly schoolgirl crush on him. I don’t though. He’s just one of my best friends. I would never admit this to andi or buffy but he’s become one of the most important people in my life, right up there with the two of them. God, i just want to see him right now. I want to know he’s okay, I want to stroke his hair, I want to grab his smug face and just kiss him._

_Oh._

_I don’t know why I wrote that. It’s not true._

_I mean, it’s a little true._

_Damn it. I do like him._


End file.
